Scomi Engineering Bhd reached a significant milestone with the launch of India’s maiden monorail service, the Mumbai Monorail on Sunday.

The first phase of the project which connects Wadala to Chembur transported some 40,000 passengers in its first two days of operations.

The transport subsidiary of local consortium Scomi Group Bhd said the 8.9km track in Mumbai is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities by about half an hour.

Scomi Engineering chief executive officer Kanesan Velupillai said the successful commissioning of the Mumbai Monorail project has allowed the company to set new standards in monorail transport systems globally.

“We are placing great emphasis on reliability of our rail solutions and delivering quality customer service to enhance the entire monorail experience,” he said in a statement.

Kanesan said the public support and interest in the monorail system augurs well for the development of the firm and have attracted other Indian cities currently pursuing the monorail system such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“Being India’s first monorail project, we also believe that this project will pave the way to many more monorail projects in India in order to cater to the country’s fast-growing infrastructure requirements,” he said.

Scomi Engineering, which secured the 1.8 billion ringgit (US$543 million) project in 2008, will extend the line in Phase Two, making the total length 11.2km.

The extension from Wadala to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk will make the Mumbai Monorail the world’s second-longest monorail, after the Osaka Monorail in Japan.

On the local front, last month, Scomi Engineering announced the delivery of its first four-car train set for the Kuala Lumpur monorail fleet expansion project.

Under the 494 million ringgit ($149 million) project, Scomi Engineering will supply a total of 12 sets of four-car trains and a new depot, upgrade of stations, signalling, power supply and other rail systems.